Accenture invests in creative agency to strengthen its life sciences capabilities

In late 2023, Accenture acquired ConcentricLife, a leading healthcare marketing agency with expertise in helping life sciences brands build an optimal brand experience at any stage of the health journey. This tuck-in acquisition of 270 agency experts will become part of Accenture Song, the world’s largest digital agency. It will augment Accenture’s life sciences commercial services by adding marketing and communications to deliver end-to-end capabilities, from strategy to execution to operations, attuned to the ever-evolving lives of today’s patients and healthcare professionals.

Garden variety services just don’t cut it in a hyper-competitive market

The world’s population is still on the rise, as is the prevalence of diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and obesity. Evidence suggests an acceleration in the proliferation of various rare diseases, including Krabbe disease, Achalasia, and Yaws. The risk of another pandemic or expanding epidemics continues to be real.

The US faces pricing headwinds as it gets ready to negotiate prices on behalf of Medicare, while regulations worldwide continue to get more complex. Yet, thanks to the rapid creation of COVID-19 vaccines, consumer expectations have risen to demand the rapid release of highly effective therapies for all that ails us.

The competitive landscape for life sciences, pharma, and medtech firms has shifted rapidly over the last few years as players attempt to navigate consumer expectations and regulatory complexities and meet investor expectations. In the process, they have acquired and spun off assets, adopted emerging tech to accelerate drug development, and become more deliberate about their role in configuring the healthcare and life sciences ecosystem.

Pharmas and medtechs are becoming even more discerning in choosing their partners; they want partners that can address the entire life sciences value chain, including drug discovery, manufacturing, supply chains, regulatory, and sales and marketing, and have the deep domain expertise in clinical, technical, procedural areas (see Exhibit 1). Accenture’s acquisition of ConcentricLife aligns with the demands of the market.

Exhibit 1: Life science enterprises want to work with real experts that can address the value chain end to end and dig deep into the domain

Sample: HFS Horizons, Life Sciences Study, 2023; n = 36
Source: HFS Research, 2024

Effective communication is a critical component of medication efficacy

Accenture starts its value proposition for life sciences by working with life sciences companies to build out therapies as they transform into brands by consulting on pre-launch commercials and product launch strategies. The ConcentricLife acquisition allows Accenture to help brands with positioning, customer strategies, communications planning, and execution. This newly acquired capability bridges the gap between commercial strategy consulting and activating and executing promotional activities with healthcare providers (HCPs) and patients.

In the pharma and medtech world, communications are perhaps the second most critical element after the efficacy and safety of drugs. Effectively communicating branding, labeling, and content ensures providers are familiar with a drug’s formulary, side effects, and dosage and comfortable prescribing it.

On the consumer end, communicating with consumers and patients ensures adherence, safety, and loyalty. Communications are also regulated to ensure appropriate verbiage and consistent understanding of the content that supports the medication. Getting all elements of communications right is critical to the success of a drug launch, getting it to people who need it, and keeping it in the market.

The Bottom Line: ConcentricLife helps Accenture’s Life Sciences practice further differentiate with a comprehensive creative offering.

As Accenture’s life sciences capabilities mature and address end-to-end capabilities in the marketing space, they can partner with life science enterprises to drive outcomes instead of point services. As pharma and medtech companies navigate a competitive market, it is critical they have a reliable partner with capabilities delivering outcomes that help differentiate brands.